Perspective on the Mountaintop

There's a moment after you're slapped in the face with a life lesson that your perspective blurs, the world grows still, and you're suddenly blinded by understanding.

Yesterday I became enlightened at 12 thousand feet.

(As one does).

The Location
A frigid mountaintop, violently windy with intermittent graupel.

The Players
Me: An overworked, underpaid frantic type who was awoken at an ungodly hour to spend the next 14 hours working for free.
She: A sweet older woman who has cerebral palsy.

The Scene
I awoke before the sun, a sure sign that the day would be a wash. As the vile fireball crested the mountain top, I glowered, knowing full well that I would still be working hours after it went down.
Snowshoeing in an unfamiliar environment was the catch of the day and I was handed a map, an athlete, and directions to the door.
She smiled at me contentedly from the red metal chair. Stories of her cats and grand nieces flew over my head as I knelt in the snow, strapping the spiky metal frames to our boots. As we rode the chairlift to the trailhead, all the things I wasn't doing raced through my head. The emails, lists, applications, job searching, apartment searching, bible study, scheduling, laundry, all ricocheting for future priority. My distraction rose with the altitude.
Our trek down the mountain was an arduous journey. Every fourth step was accompanied by a pause to retell stories and consider the trees. Minutes stretched into hours and the wind ripped at our clothing, tiny snowballs pelting the back of our heads like all the things waiting for me at home.
"Do your legs get tired?"she asked as we moseyed through a temporary lull.
Not when we move this slowly came the thought.
"Sometimes" was my actual response, "But usually my lungs hurt more. Sometimes I forget to breathe," I added, offering her an excuse to take a break.
"Oh, I'll help you!" she said, a broad grin flashing across her face, "First you inhale!" She pulled in the air, watching me... waiting.
I looked into her sparkling eyes and slowly filled my lungs with oxygen.
"Now exhale!" her words gushed out in a cloud of steam.
I held the oxygen inside, heart pumping it to my cells.
And then released.
I exhaled my thoughts, my worries. My shoulders slumped as the tension melted away.
"See? It's easy!"
 As the little purple hat continued down the hill in front of me, the gears in my head ground to a stop.
First you inhale... 

Now exhale!